Sourav Ganguly reveals how Pune Warriors owners' decision made him retire from IPL

Ganguly played for Pune Warriors India in IPL 2011 and 2012.

Sourav Ganguly’s autobiography ‘A Century is not Enough’ has become a raging hit amongst the cricket lovers. The book, which covers the life and cricketing career of the former Bengal and India captain, has thrown light on various phases of his life in and outside the field.

Sourav Ganguly played for Kolkata Knight Riders from 2008-2010 and captained them in 2008 and 2010. However, in the 2011 IPL auctions, Sourav Ganguly was released by the KKR franchise and went unsold in the auction to the surprise of many.

However, Ganguly was bought by Sahara owned Pune Warriors after Ashish Nehra injured his finger during the 2011 World Cup and was unavailable for the tournament. Also missing for them was 2011 World Cup Man of the tournament Yuvraj Singh, who was diagnosed with cancer and went to USA for treatment.

Ganguly writes, “In January (2012) I got a call from Saharashri Subrata Roy to come and meet him in Delhi. I went on a Sunday. He got to the point rather quickly: 'Sourav, I have decided, you will be our captain this season.’”

Ganguly continued, “Having done extensive homework, I landed for the auction in Bengaluru. I had arrived a day before to have an important meeting with the management. Next morning I woke up early and had breakfast. As I was getting ready to go down, my doorbell rang. I opened the door and found a pensive-looking Abhijitda standing outside. He said, 'A decision has come from the Boss that we will not participate in the auction.'”

“I got the shock of my life! What was he saying? I desperately tried to make him understand the impact of such a decision. How irreparable the damage would be. The Boss' anger with the board may subside afterwards. He said his decision was final and that we needed to get out of Bengaluru as soon as possible. I would be leader of a group which I had neither selected nor would be able to strengthen,” Ganguly writes.

Ganguly writes that he was shocked to know that Subrata Roy, owner of PWI wanted to make changeds in the playing XI.

He says, “We eventually came down to Kolkata to play the biggest match of the season against KKR. The media had added their own angle to the match, hyping it as Dada versus SRK. On the day of the match, I entered the team meeting to announce the eleven.”

“Immediately, afterwards I was told that the bosses were looking for me. It was Mr Roy on the phone who wanted to know about the combination that I was playing. He wanted to make certain changes and naturally I had to follow his order,” he continued.

The match between PWI and KKR was the final match for PWI to keep their hopes alive for qualifying for the IPL 2012 play-offs.

Ganguly writes, “I wanted to open in this match and take control right from the word go but was advised against it. I was told instead that I had to bat lower down the order. The boss' idea was that if we were chasing, I could control the middle order with my experience and win the game for Pune. But we lost by seven runs. The game was my last hope in the tournament. From this defeat, we just went down and down. Ironically, the last match of my international career had KKR as the opponents. We lost this match in Pune and the season ended for us.”

Ganguly then writes that he knew that his time in IPL was up.

He says, “I told myself that I would not play IPL anymore. I spent nearly a month thinking about it but the voice within told me that my time was up. I had felt the same when I decided to retire from Test cricket. After a month or so I informed my family.”